Shoaib Bashir is England's hero as India stumble in Ranchi Test

England continued to enjoy a remarkable turnaround in the fourth Test against India, reaping the benefits of sticking to the basics as they closed in on a huge first innings lead on a deteriorating pitch on Saturday.

A day after Joe Root returned to his traditional approach to batting and notched up an unbeaten ton, it was the turn of England's bowlers to tie down India's batsmen through disciplined bowling on a pitch offering inconsistent bounce.

Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir (4-84) bowled a marathon spell of 31 overs to break the back of India, who crawled their way to 219-7 by stumps on day two, still trailing by 134 runs.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhruv Jurel, on 30, and Kuldeep Yadav, on 17, were batting at the close of play with an unbeaten stand of 42 to add some respectability to India's score.

But the day belonged to Bashir, plucked out of relative obscurity and thrust straight into Test cricket.

The off-spinner came on to bowl in the ninth over of India's innings and remained unchanged from his end until Root replaced him shortly before stumps.

Shoaib Bashir's 31-over spell of 4-83 is, according to @CricViz data:
- The longest spell by an England bowler since 2013 (Swann, 6-90 in a 32-over spell v NZ, Leeds)
- The longest spell by any bowler in a Test in India since 2005 (Kumble, 7-63 in 38 v Pakistan, Kolkata)

He removed Shubman Gill (38) and Rajat Patidar (17), trapping both lbw. Gill and Patidar remained stuck at the crease throughout their stay and were sitting ducks for Bashir who targeted their pads on an indifferent surface, and succeeded.

Ravindra Jadeja tried to hit his way out of trouble but was caught at short leg to put India in trouble at 131-4 at tea.

Bashir then got the big scalp of top-scorer